CALL FOR PAPERS
Mobilities of Memory
Guest Editor: Lynne Pearce, Lancaster University, UK
Mobility and memory articulate in numerous ways - across debates, fields, disciplines and theoretical approaches. For the phenomenologists of memory - such as Henri Bergson, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edward Casey - movement is intrinsic to the way in which memory works, with both body and place performing a crucial role in orientating us in relation to the past, present and future. Memory is also a key concept for scholars working in the fields of postcolonial and migration studies, where the traumas and injustices of both the distant and recent past are often explored via the testimonies of those who have been subject to displacement and destitution. Such texts (including literary fiction) are the means by which we can gain a deeper understanding of how enforced mobility impacts upon both individuals, communities and nations and leaves its scars. This, in turn, relates to those philosophies of ‘the event’ (e.g. Alain Badiou) which insist that the significance of certain social or global phenomena can only be known in retrospect: a salutary observation for all those of us living and working in the time of pandemic. Meanwhile, for scholars whose work is informed by future-oriented social science research, attention to the lived experience of the recent past via interviews and ethnographic research can be an important methodology for tackling issues defined by social and cultural change - e.g., the climate emergency and the initiatives and technologies needed to address is. A thorough understanding of our recent past is arguably one of the best ways of anticipating and, indeed, problematizing, our emerging futures. Finally, although the recent popularity of posthumanist research across multiple disciplines is more typically associated with the analysis of the way in which human and non-human actors and/or systems interact in the present, there is also recognition that moving objects of every kind bear the memory-marks of their past.
This call-for-papers invites paper proposals from scholars working across all disciplines who have an interest in the intersections of mobility and memory. Topics and debating points that you might be interested in addressing via this lens include:
• Climate Emergency
• Transport, Travel and Tourism
• Migration and Displacement
• Travelling Objects
• Space, Place and Landscape
• Memorials and Memorialisation
• Ageing
• Loss
• Nostalgia
• Visualising Memory
• Body Memory
• The Uncanny
• Habit and Routine
• The Recent Past
However, we welcome all proposals that seek to explore memory in the context of recent mobilities research.
We are aiming to publish 5-6 papers of 8,000 words max. but will also consider shorter contributions. We will require the finalised papers to be submitted for peer review by January 30 2022.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for consideration please email your proposal (300 words max) to the Guest Editor, Professor Lynne Pearce, who will be responsible for selecting which papers to include.
Contact details: L.Pearce@lancaster.ac.uk.
Deadline for Proposals: 1 September 2021
The Journal
Mobility Humanities is a peer-reviewed, international and interdisciplinary journal published two times per year by the Academy of Mobility Humanities at Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea.
While seeking vibrant interdisciplinary discussions on the phenomena, technologies, and infrastructures of mobility and its ramifications from the humanities perspective, Mobility Humanities encourages papers that delve into their cultural-political, ethical, and spiritual and emotional meanings, focusing on the representation, imagination, and speculation that surround mobility.
Mobility Humanities welcomes original articles that make an innovative contribution to the humanities-based mobility studies from philosophical thoughts, literary, cultural and communication inquiries, historical, geographical, and sociological research around the world. We especially welcome research from and about Asia and the Global South.
Mobility Humanities consists of articles, review articles, and scholarly interviews, as well as special issues and a mobile forum. Mobility Humanities boasts a strong editorial board composed of respected scholars from across the globe. Also, the journal collaborates with distinguished scholars as guest editors. For further details see: www.journalmobilityhumanities.com.
The Guest Editor
Lynne Pearce is Professor of Literary and Cultural Theory in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University where she has worked for over 30 years. She is also Co-Director (Humanities) at Lancaster University’s Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe) established by Mimi Sheller and John Urry in 2003. Her recent publications in the Mobilities field include Drivetime: Literary Excursions in Automotive Consciousness (Edinburgh University Press, 2016) and Mobility, Memory and the Lifecourse (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) as well as the co-edited collection (with Peter Merriman) Mobility and the Humanities (Routledge, 2018). See: www.lancaster.ac.uk/cemore/.
